Sitting in a hotel room listening to British actor Tom Hiddleston recite Hamlet is not a bad way to start a day.

The 33-year-old star of Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive, opening Friday in Toronto after successful runs at Cannes and TIFF 2013, was musing on the inspiration for his character in the film, an ageless yet tormented rock star vampire named Adam.

As the eternal spouse of Eve (Tilda Swinton), they hide out in Detroit, living in a burned-out and ruined area of the Michigan city like decaying rock royalty in a shuttered mansion. That is, until Eve’s bratty sister (Mia Wasikowska) shows up and adds a few layers of difficulty.

Many have compared the guitar-collecting musician Adam to David Bowie, especially during his pallid late-1970s Thin White Duke phase. But Hiddleston, who has played characters ranging from Loki in the Thor and Avengers films to F. Scott Fitzgerald in Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, sees others in the tormented vampire.

“It’s interesting and I have thought about (Bowie) but I also thought about Syd Barrett, too,” said Hiddleston of the late co-founder of Pink Floyd, whose musical genius was marred by mental illness and addiction.

“Syd was a nice reference for us visually and also Mick Jagger in (the 1970 drama) Performance where he’s playing a Bohemian living in a dilapidated house. We talked about Hamlet as well,” said Hiddleston.

Hiddleston said he was inspired by his character’s “sad disillusioned spirit” to reread Hamlet — also taking a cue from a character in the script — and found “so many of these lines could have been said by Adam,” before quoting several of the Danish prince’s speeches.

While some may say the bloodsucking genre has been overdone lately, especially thanks to the Twilight series, Hiddleston said he never felt like he was actually making a vampire movie.

“It felt like we were making a love story between two quite sophisticated creatures who happen to be vampires,” said Hiddleston. “It is a wonderful prism from which to explore immortality.”

True, Adam and Eve have their own style. They sip organically sourced blood from small crystal glasses, the kind of stemware often used for sherry. And the designer clothes and their somewhat decadent lifestyles give them an air of faded elegance as Adam and Eve struggle with what being vampires means while they explore the real-life urban decay of Detroit.

“For Adam, immortality has become a burden and he’s become depressed with the direction of human activity, an age which has a great fear of imagination,” Hiddleston observed. “Eve can say ‘we’ve lived through worse.’ She’s got the long view.”

He said his favourite scene to shoot with Swinton — who was “so open-hearted” — was a wistful and sensual dance Adam and Eve share, partially shot from above. “That was a very special day, a first coming-together with Tilda and as a sequence, it speaks volumes but wordlessly.”

Hiddleston’s latest movie has again brought him to Toronto, where he’s now shooting Guillermo del Toro’s Gothic horror Crimson Peak, starring opposite Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain and Charlie Hunnam. It’s due out in 2015.

He joined the cast in August when Benedict Cumberbatch dropped out of the film.

“He’s one of my best friends. It’s as simple as that,” Hiddleston said of Cumberbatch. They met in 2010, playing officers in Steven Spielberg’s War Horse.

“It’s a great script and I’ve been a fan of Guillermo forever. I think he’s amazing,” said Hiddleston of the Mexican director.

“He’s made no secret this is an English-language film that’s very close to the sensibility of his Spanish-language films,” Hiddleston added. “I’ve always wanted to make a good horror film and there’s no one at the moment in the world of Guillermo’s equal.”

More on thestar.com

We value respectful and thoughtful discussion. Readers are encouraged to flag comments that fail to meet the standards outlined in our
Community Code of Conduct.
For further information, including our legal guidelines, please see our full website
Terms and Conditions.